Bread Slicer Guides

Like many people out there, I had trouble trying to find a quality bread slicer with a guide, so I posted this article to help anyone else in a similar situation! There are quite a few different kinds on the market, so how do you actually decide what is good product and what isn’t? To help you out we will discuss some of the features you will need to consider before you decide on a suitable model. After that we will look at some of the top rated models you can currently get. Should you already know what sort of model you want, you can head over to the recommended models section using this link.

What features should you look for in a slicer?

Like many people out there, I was easily enticed into buying a cheap quality model at first. I intended to use this with a bread maker I was given over xmas, however was left sorely disappointed with my new slicer. To avoid making that mistake again, I did some research and found out what kind of qualities you need to look for in a slicer.
The first and foremost thing you will need to consider is what type of material you intend to invest in. The cheapest and most readily available kinds are the plastic models, which is I initially bought. However this was a mistake for two very obvious reasons, none of which I had considered before I bought it. The first reason is that the entire unit was so flimsy that I was not able to slice a loaf of bread evenly. The particular one I bought had four parts that snapped together to form the slicer, but once I tried to cut any bread the slots tended to move as soon as I put any pressure on them, which created uneven slices. The entire unit was simply not tough enough to handle the simple task of slicing bread.
Aside from the flimsiness, there was another issue that I never anticipated. Since the model was made out of plastic, there were times when plastic shavings would come off the sides of the unit and go into the bread. My bread knife is very sharp, but it just went to show what this wasn’t even a durable type of plastic being used with this model. I would strongly recommend that you avoid plastic slicers altogether to be honest. They simply are not strong enough for this type of work, and you will likely end up with plastic bits in your food! You will also find bamboo slicers available, but from the reviews I have seen, these are almost as weak as the plastic ones. There are some decent wooden slicers out there, so we would recommend that you look for a wooden slicer to avoid the above mentioned issues.

Looking back at my not-so-impressive plastic slicer, there was another issue – the sizing of the slices. This particular slicer only had one size, which was a little too thin for my liking. If I tried slicing using two slots instead, it came out too thick. So we were kind of stuck since I wanted the size in between the two. In hindsight I should have read about what sizes it made, but I simply assumed it made store bought thickness slices. To avoid running into this problem yourself, you should check out what size slices the bread guide you are interested in makes. Cheaper slicers will only make one thickness, while the more decent ones will do a range of sizes. I learned this the hard way unfortunately, but at least someone else might benefit from this knowledge!
The last issue I ran into was that our slicer was not wide enough to accommodate our home made bread. It could only just fit in standard store bought loaves, but anything wider would not fit. I ended up trimming some of our home made loaf simply to fit it in the slicer, which is very wasteful. To avoid this same mistake, you should always check the dimensions of the slicer to make sure it will accommodate whatever size bread you intend to slice. It seems most of the cheap units are made as small as possible to skimp on production costs, so remember to keep an eye out for this.
These are some of the tips I think you should take into account before you make a purchase. Hopefully someone out there will benefit from this! Now lets take a look at some of the top rated bread slicers you can currently get.

What are some of the better models?
We have two models to recommend, and it’s a tough choice between the two models as both are a good buy. Keep in mind that you will need a long knife to use with these. A 10″ knife should be fine, so we would recommend the Chicago Cutlery 10″ bread knife on Amazon as it is affordable and a good quality product.

Recommended model – Elite Bread Slicer

The first bread slicer we can recommend is the Elite Bread Slicer. This is a rather unique design since it has one slicer guide in the middle. This allows you to cut the bread as thick or thin as you desire. The guide itself is made out of stainless steel, and the bread board is made out of maple. They also do a cheaper version using hickory wood, but we recommend the maple as it is stronger and doesn’t cost much more. This entire unit is hand built in the USA, so there is no cheap plastic involved! It can accommodate loaves up to five inches thick, and it has rubber feet underneath to grip the counter. The only downside is that you need to line the bread up carefully before you slice it, but this is pretty easy to do once you get the hang of it. Overall this is a decent quality slicer, and should last many years. You can check the customer reviews of this model, and see the current pricing of it on Amazon over here.

Recommended model – The Bread Pal

The other model we can recommend is The Bread Pal. Like the model above, this unit is hand made in America. It is made out of hardwood, and the cutting surface is made out of polyeythylene. It also has a plastic bread retainer to hold the bread in place. The plastic retainer itself is a little flimsy, but it doesn’t affect the operation of the unit at all. This model is fold-able, and takes only a few seconds to put up and take down which is convenient if you don’t have counter space to store it on. There are two thickness slices to choose from including 1/2″ to 3/8″, otherwise you could use two slots to make extra thick slices. The bread pal is quite a large unit, and can accommodate a very wide 6 1/4″ loaf!
This is one of the best slicers you can currently get, and with a retail price of around $65, it won’t cost you a fortune. You can check the current pricing and read some of the many happy customer reviews of The Bread Pal on Amazon by over here.